From the past few days I've been thinking more about the neurosteroid theory, which could be the same or very much related mechanism that could be common with the PFS syndrome.
I did a naltrexone trial by myself (end of december 2017 - end of january 2018) (when I still wasn't quite sure if I had pssd).
In my introductory post:
In my original post I forgot to mention that naltrexone besides restoring my nocturnal/morning erections (they were of very good quality) and that with it I could achieve a very good erection practically "on-demand"And most importantly I would like to ask:
Has anyone here tried normal dose (25 - 50mg) naltrexone for PSSD? It restored my erections in 2 days while i was taking it.
I also found a med article from 2008 year titled "Alleviation of both binge eating and sexual dysfunction with naltrexone"
the article is about a case study of a woman, who was addicted to heroin but managed to overcome the addiction. Later she was
treated with SSRIs. After she was treated with SSRIs she had episodes of binge eating. She was prescribed naltrexone (50 - 100 mg
daily) for binge eating and surprisingly she reported a return of sexual fantasies. She stopped taking naltrexone because her
perscription ended and the fantasies went away. She got a new perscription and was taking naltrexone for the next three months - the
fantasies returned and were present during the treatment. The article states that "it's too early to propose naltrexone for post ssri
induced sexual dysfunction and more studies need to be done" So I see the similarity here with my case when I also took naltrexone.
Naltrexone didn't restore my libido. That could be because of the opiod receptor blockade, which as a result blocks dopamine release from VTA.
Initial findings, which pushed me to test naltrexone:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2543996
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8294223
Some days ago I found this:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 9385907942
What I found today was very interesting:Chronic exposure to naltrexone (8 days) is associated with a significant increase in the content of norepinephrine in the mesolimbic forebrain and the content of dopamine in the frontal cortex and striatum.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20528823Naltrexone selectively elevates GABAergic neuroactive steroid levels in heavy drinkers with the Asp40 allele of the OPRM1 gene: a pilot investigation.
http://psych.colorado.edu/~cuchangelab/ ... ective.pdf (full publication) - from what I've read naltrexone also increased cortisol and ACTH levels.
Naltrexone treatment raised ALLO levels among carriers of the Asp40 allele, but not homozygotes for the Asn40 allele. The Asn40Asp polymorphism did not moderate effects of naltrexone on cortisol levels. Ethanol infusion modestly reduced ALLO levels in all subjects, independent of genotype or naltrexone exposure.
King and colleagues (2002) found that naltrexone increased both
ACTH and cortisol levels in healthy participants compared to
placebo and that individuals with a family history of alcoholism
displayed a heightened ACTH and cortisol response to
naltrexone (King et al., 2002).
Also, look at this:Naltrexone increased ALLO levels by 49.4% (post hoc test
p < 0.05), relative to placebo, among individuals with the
Asp40 allele of the OPRM1 gene (AG⁄GG), but did not alter
ALLO levels among homozygotes for the Asn40 allele
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16963172
Maybe increase in allopregnenolone and increase in dopamine and noradrenaline in some regions of the brain could be responsible for my partial recovery while I was on naltrexone?Endogenous opioid system blockade is known to activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and other hormonal systems.
Also, I've found some info about SJW:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/E ... 7d1ccc60fb
According to the above paper, SJW does not work like SSRI in regards to serotonin uptake. (but according to older ones it does inhibit serotonin reuptake)
And the most interesting part (linking SJW with neurosteroids):
http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/DocServe ... ?docID=168
On page 5 (section "Mechanism of action"):
However when I google by the authors and years mentioned in the inhibition of neurosteroid uptake section I initially can't find any more evidence on SJW acting on neurosteroid levels.May inhibit uptake of neuropeptides and neurosteroids
(Perovic and Müller, 1995; Holzl et al., 1989; Chatterjee et
al., 1998; Raffa, 1998; Butterweck et al., 1997).
The one weak thing here is - There is no way I can tell if I'm Asp40 allele carrier.
Guys? What do you think about this? Could this be another proof of the neurosteroid theory?